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Friday, September 20, 2013

Here is an event you can be all over...literally!The 2nd annual Touch a Truck event lets kids and their families get close to big rigs, monster trucks, police cars, fire trucks and ambulances.Sharon Amirault of First Steps tells CHSJ News the event was suggested to them.

She tells us a friend of First Steps attended a similar event in Boston and thought it would be very popular here. Touch A Truck runs from 10am to 3pm on Long Wharf.

Tickets are $5 a person and kids under two are free.Tickets are available in advance at Harbour Station and at the Guardian Drugs locations in Grand Bay, Rothesay and Hampton.

It's a question of honesty: if Louis Lapierre was willing to falsify his academic credentials, what else did he lie about? That's the point being raised by Provincial Green Party leader David Coon.

He says the Alward government appointed Lapierre to give its pro-fracking stance some legitimacy but now all that has been cast into question.

Coon says the people of New Brunswick will doubtless want the government to look at Lapierre's reports again, since they supposedly consulted with people and gave a green light for fracking to go ahead.

The Huntsman Fundy Discovery Aquarium in St. Andrews staying open from Monday until the end of October due to popular demand.

The initial plan had been to open by appointment only after September 8, but instead they're opening a daily two-hour window which allows visitors to see the harbour seals Loki and Snorkel being fed, as well as the new seahorse exhibit.

As a special thank you to visitors, admission prices are being reduced by 20% for the period.

The big question is what the resignation of Louis LaPierre as head of the province's Energy Institute does to the Alward Government's policy on shale gas development.

He had been appointed to head the province's new shale gas institute earlier this year.

Provincial Energy Minister Craig Leonard, while announcing the resignation of LaPierre had been accepted, praised the work of the Institute under LaPierre’s leadership.

Controversy has erupted over LaPierre's supposed academic qualifications. LaPierre has been a University of Moncton professor for 30 years but now has admitted to misrepresenting his academic credentials.

He also resigned as chair of the Marathon Panel, a federal environmental review board, citing medical reasons.